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A little common sense from Victor Davis Hanson on the hand wringing being done by conservatives on the "latino vote", and how to capture more of it. I keep hearing pundits opine that hispanics should be "natural" conservatives, and would come onbooard if only we could frame our message the right way, or make the right concessions. As Hanson states effectively in this piece, perhaps that assumption isn't exactly correct.

Postelection panic among conservatives about the Latino vote has reached the point of absurdity — and mostly reveals the naïveté of detached political grandees who know little about the ideology and motivations of those they are now supposed to adroitly woo.
Republican postmortems have focused heavily on the Latino vote. According to exit polls, it went 70 percent for Barack Obama, and this year it might have accounted for 10 percent or so of the electorate. Presumably, this margin was an important, and in some exegeses the decisive, factor that denied Mitt Romney the presidency. Given demographic reality, then, the Republican party must in response be more inclusive, curb its illiberal and gratuitous rhetoric, and seek a “grand bargain” on illegal immigration, which will welcome Latinos into the party, and thereby result in a new 21st-century inclusive majority that will win presidential elections.

.... A final note. Republicans have convinced themselves that somehow they were insensitive and thus lost minority votes. In fact, for nearly four years the Obama administration and its surrogates worked to create a racialist divide — energized by talk of a new demographic future — that was never successfully countered. When the pastor who gave the benediction when Barack Obama was sworn into office brags that whites are going to Hell, or when a columnist like Colbert King likens Romney to Andrew Johnson, the wrecker of Reconstruction, or when Chris Matthews serially alleges racism on the part of Republicans, or when Attorney General Eric Holder refers to blacks as “my people” and others as “a nation of cowards” — and when these efforts are not countered or even addressed — then the stereotype of a racist establishment certainly takes hold. The success of the Obama campaign in capturing the minority vote was not due to a Republican failure to have minority voices (cf. the party’s multiracial convention), nor was it due to opposition to the DREAM Act, but rather to a moral failure on the part of Republicans (not even a mild rebuke to Joseph Lowery’s racist rant?) to demonstrate that those who were building racial divisions for political advantage were themselves the real racists. If Republicans do not believe in a society in which race is to be incidental, not essential to our characters, and if they cannot stand on such principles, then why should anyone else?

Let's be honest about this, it isn't about gaining the 'Latino' vote it is about getting the illegal alien vote, everyone knows the democrats are using them for a voting block, it's no secret.
Why the hell do you think Dems are getting voting ID laws removed. The voting may be under the jurisdiction of the states but they are also responsible for the integrity of the vote and should only be accepting votes from qualified voters.

The difference between pigs and people is that when they tell you you're cured it isn't a good thing.

The Illegal immigrant issue aside the Republicans should not pander to any nationality or skin color or sex but rather appeal to people of reason and principlal .

The 21st century. The age of Smart phones and Stupid people.

It is said that branches draw their life from the vine. Each is separate yet all are one as they share one life giving stem . The Bible tells us we are called to a similar union in life, our lives with the life of God. We are incorporated into him; made sharers in his life. Apart from this union we can do nothing.

The Latino vote is one that the GOP can go after without offending the conservative Christians in the party.

To try to get the single, white female vote, the party would have to back away from opposing legal abortion. To get gays to vote for them in large numbers, they would have to stop opposing gay marriage.

I don't think the GOP can do anything to win over the majority of the black vote, even if they run more black candidates. At least not in this current generation.

Latino voters are mostly Catholic. They can be won over in large enough numbers to change electoral outcomes-the numbers for Bush and Reagan speak for themselves.

The Latino vote is one that the GOP can go after without offending the conservative Christians in the party.

To try to get the single, white female vote, the party would have to back away from opposing legal abortion. To get gays to vote for them in large numbers, they would have to stop opposing gay marriage.

I don't think the GOP can do anything to win over the majority of the black vote, even if they run more black candidates. At least not in this current generation.

Latino voters are mostly Catholic. They can be won over in large enough numbers to change electoral outcomes-the numbers for Bush and Reagan speak for themselves.

The log Cabin Republicans were around long before the twinks started a stink about acceptance of their lifestyle.

The 21st century. The age of Smart phones and Stupid people.

It is said that branches draw their life from the vine. Each is separate yet all are one as they share one life giving stem . The Bible tells us we are called to a similar union in life, our lives with the life of God. We are incorporated into him; made sharers in his life. Apart from this union we can do nothing.

Why does everyone assume the "Latino vote" is equivalent with the "illegal alien" vote and that the solution is amnesty? Latinos in SoCal who came LEGALLY are usually not supportive of illegal aliens, for whom they also pay. (We also need to remember the Latinos/Chicanos who actually lived in the Southwest before the US took over as well.)

Latino DOES NOT equal "illegal alien". What the GOP needs to do is split the Latino vote, going after legal and well established Latinos and, as noonwitch has suggested, do this along religious lines.

Latino voters are mostly Catholic. They can be won over in large enough numbers to change electoral outcomes-the numbers for Bush and Reagan speak for themselves.

The older generation may be Catholic, but perhaps that isn't an issue in their politics. Hanson points out that the tax hikes recently passed by voters in California enjoyed support from a large number of hispanic voters. So much for them being "natural" conservatives.